You are here

Clean Cookstove Project

A Global Peace Foundation project in:

Nearly 3 billion people prepare food for their families using an open fire in their home. This inefficient cooking method exposes users to dangerous pollutants and impacts livelihoods due to the high cost of fuel.

The Clean Cookstove Project eliminates preventable deaths of mothers and children caused by open cooking fires in developing and newly industrialized countries by providing cleaner and more efficient alternatives.

Women are taught how to make their own clay cookstoves using local resources using a method that is simple, affordable, and easily teachable to others. These cookstoves provide health benefits, efficiency, cleanliness, aesthetics, and affordability.

Latest News

The Global Peace Foundation’s Cookstove Project, which provides families with clean stoves that limit deadly indoor air pollution, is expanding from Uganda to Kenya through an initiative of Global Peace Women.

Eager participants gathered around to see a demonstration of a clean cook stove after hearing about the effects of the popular “three stone” stove that has caused severe respiratory problems, including lung cancer, affecting millions world-wide.

Project Details

Activities: Global Peace Women, the women’s division of the Global Peace Foundation, began implementation of the Clean Cookstoves Project in Uganda in early 2013. The project has been working with Ugandan women in the villages of Nabisweera and Mijeera in the Nakasongola District; Kyomunembe and Nyaibarukya in the Kibaale District; and multiple villages in the Mukonu District. The project has expanded to villages in Kenya and Nepal.

Process: The Cookstove Project trains women in the process of constructing efficient clay cookstoves, overseen the construction as women perfect their craft, and contributed the few building materials that are not available locally.

Unlike traditional three-stone open fires, the clay cookstove burns fuel efficiently and completely, ensuring that no toxic gases are emitted into the home as the fuel burns. This process also creates a hotter fire that requires less wood. The stoves are made from local clay and a special filter to funnel out harmful gases.

Women are key players in the construction process. They collect and prepare the construction materials, build the stoves alongside their neighbors, and teach others about the construction process, sharing this technical knowledge in their social networks.

When stove construction began in Uganda, villagers imprinted “Global Peace Women” on their stoves before the clay dried. Women proudly explained to the Cookstove Project staff that this branding embodied their sense of membership in a worldwide women's movement.